February’s Top Games on Twitch: Rainbow Six: Siege Enters Esports Top 10 for the First Time

League of Legends topped February’s Top 20 Most Watched Games on Twitch by Esports Hours with 31.1 million hours. A full month of League of Legends competitions around the globe drove the game to the #1 spot. Compared to February 2016, League of Legends leagues increased viewership by 8%. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dropped a spot to #2. Though Dreamhack Vegas generated good viewership, it couldn’t match the success of last month’s ELEAGUE Major. Dota 2 had several tournaments and qualifiers that helped it retain its #3 position. Newzoo’s Twitch Tracker is one of many solutions within our esports intelligence portfolio. Together, they power our landmark Global Esports Market Premium service and complement our Esports Consumer Insights service covering 27 countries.

Heroes of the Storm was the biggest riser, gaining four spots. The Heroes of the Storm Global Championship (HGC) had one more round of play in February than January, which accounted for the extra hours watched. Rainbow Six: Siege entered the top 10 for the first time, following its Six Invitational. Total esports hours watched for the Ubisoft game reached 0.7 million or 10% of all its total hours watched on Twitch. The title was #8 in February’s Most Played Core PC Games ranking.

FOR HONOR IS FULLY LAUNCHED AND CLIMBS TO #8

Like the previous month, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive took the #1 and #2 spots for the total hours watched in February. Hearthstone swapped places with Dota 2 to enter the top three. For Honor was the biggest riser in the ranking, climbing eight spots to #7 with 15.4 million hours watched. The game entered the top 20 in January while in beta and was fully launched last month, driving viewership up by almost 10 million hours.

The bottom half of the top 20 saw a lot of movement, with many games dropping one or more spots. Resident Evil fell to number 16 after its release, while Smite fell to the bottom after its World Championship drove viewership in January. Like in the esports ranking, Heroes of the Storm rose a few spots due to the HGC. Rainbow Six: Siege viewership increased due to the release of its latest patch, Velvet Shell, and its Six Invitational event.

Conan Exiles was the highest new entry in February. The game, which was released on the last day of January, took #9. One place below, Nioh entered the top 20 as the second new entry. The PS4-exclusive action game was released in the beginning of February. It will be interesting to see if both games will make March’s top 20, as new titles often lose a lot of viewers a month after launch.

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